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Sunday, January 20, 2013

I spent most of this afternoon cleaning out my mother's desk. Although there was much that could be tossed from the drawers--old buttons, grocery receipts, newspaper clippings, pink ribbons (oh if only she'd known), countless pens advertising Zithromax, Procardia XL and the UAHC Department of Adult Jewish Growth, as well as business cards from clergy and now-defunct stores and start-ups--many items remain neatly tucked away there, keepsakes from her life.

Of course there are photos. Many of my mom--as an infant, a child, a college student, a young married woman, a new mother, and a new grandmother--filled one folder. Images of other relatives--some from decades ago--filled another. My sister, Ian and I, mostly as babies and in classic school photo poses are well represented, too.

Keeping company with the photos is my parents' wedding invitation and many mazel tov telegrams sent care of the Free Synagogue of Flushing, where they were married just a few years after my mother attended a friend's confirmation there. Also in that drawer are the announcement of my birth, the program from her college graduation, a similar booklet from one of my father's master degree ceremonies, my mother's Gratz College valedictory remarks from the spring of 2001, a d'var Torah she delivered at a long-ago editorial board meeting of RJ magazine, and the booklet from her 50th high school reunion. (The senior yearbook photo reproduced in that booklet bears a striking resemblance to this writer.)

An embroidered LWV name tag and one from the NJWHVC of the UAHC made the cut as did her college ID, her first driver's license (issued by the State of Maryland in the 1950s, when my parents lived at historic 105 Council Street in Frederick), and a small yellow disk etched with her name and birth date, which my father identified as a children's ID tag, required during WWII. The newspaper notice of my parents' marriage, a few notes, cards and clippings from her work as an early childhood educator six decades ago, and a campaign button for Adlai Stevenson, as well as a handwritten letter from the politician remain in her desk as well.

Two items from her wallet so touched my heart they're now tucked into my own wallet.

The first, a light-blue three by five card, folded and refolded, taped and re-taped is printed thusly:

The Gift of Blessing

May Adonai Bless you and keep you

safe...

May Adonai cause the light of the Divine

Presence to shine upon you and be gracious to you...

May Adonai be favorable to you and

give you wholeness, completeness and

Peace. Amen.

(Name Your Blessings Here)

Bob

Jane and David

Amy and John

Claire

Family and Dear Friends

The second, a one-inch by two-inch clipping from a Jewish newspaper (I presume), will surprise no one who ever studied Torah with my mother. That she saw fit to carry it constantly with her speaks volumes about her love of Torah, Jewish learning, and Moses.

Wednesday, January 9, 2013

One in an
occasional series of letters to my mother, z.l., that appears on this blog.

Dear The Mums,

Remember when you went to the URJ Biennial in Orlando in
1999 and how, when you told one of your friends it was your first trip to
Florida, she asked, “Are you sure you’re really Jewish?!”

I was reminded of that exchange recently because Alan Mason,
one of my friends, is, for the fifth time in as many years, directing what has
become an incredibly popular and nationally known Jewish music concert in
Miami.Alan’s the program director of
the Winter Jewish Music Concert,
an annual event that began four years ago as a tribute to him on his 18th
anniversary as the director of music at Temple
Israel of Greater Miami.

Since then, it has grown exponentially in size and
popularity.This year’s Winter Jewish
Music Concert will be held on Saturday, January 19 at 8 p.m. in the Bertha
Abess Sanctuary at Temple Israel.That
night, more than 25 singers (cantors, cantorial soloists and musicians) will,
accompanied by Alan on the piano, come together from throughout South Florida
and beyond to perform a lively mix of tap-your-foot, sing-along Jewish music,
including liturgical, pop, jazz, folk, Israeli, Yiddish, Ladino, cantorial, beat
box, magic and illusion, as well as other styles.A capacity crowd of more than 700 will, as in
the past, pack the sanctuary, while countless others will watch the first-ever
live broadcast of the concert on Jewish Life TV.

Although I’ve never made it to Miami for the concert (or for
any other reason, in fact), I’ve seen video clips from previous
concerts and I can tell you that you and I would love a pair of seats in the sanctuary.

In
an ideal world, we’d take a mid-winter, leave-it-all-behind mother-daughter
jaunt to Miami to fill those seats.Of
course, this isn’t an ideal world and the best I can do this year is tune
in to Jewish Life TV next Saturday night to watch and listen virtually.I’m not sure what kind of electronics set-up
you’ve got in your yeshivah shel mal'ah (or, come to think of it, if, given where
you are, you even need video equipment to see and hear the concert!), but I
hope you, too, will tune in—in whatever way works best—to hear the music and
feel the enthusiasm.You will love
it!If you need more information,
there’s lots of it here on the concert’s website.

As always, I miss
you lots and wish you were here.Enjoy
the music, The Mums.